915 stuck in reverse, help needed

[Walt Fricke]

I don't think I have tried to put the tranny in neutral when pulling the engine or the engine and tranny as a unit. Typically I put it in 1st or 3d because that moves the rod which sticks out of the tranny the farthest back into the tranny. Less sticking out means less to hang up on the exit of the center tunnel.

The reason getting stuck in reverse is relatively common. You can see from the nice photos looking up into the 1 through 4 gear shifting stuff that the dongle is between one or the other pair of ears for 1/2 and 3/4. When in 5/reverse, the dongle tip is past both of these, so it just sort of rattles around when you are selecting 5 or reverse.

5/rev is selected by the small finger which extends sideways from the main shift rod within the nose piece space. Moving the shifter to the 5/R plane engages that finger into a shallow slot on the rod which moves the forks whatnot to engage 5 or rev. Compared to the other 4 gears this is a far less robust connection. For instance, while at a stop in reverse (worse, while still rolling backward in reverse) and yanking it into first)can allow the finger to get out of its slot. Now you are in reverse, and can't get out of it. You might think you could force the finger to slide along that rod and get back into the slot, but perhaps the other lockout systems prevent that?

Luckily, the backup light works by the 5/R rod end moving toward the front of the car when going into reverse. So the rod hits the end of a pin which then closes the backup light switch. Hence the trick of moving that rod back into place by pushing on the switch pin, or using a thin rod to push, allowing the finger to drop into its slot. When out of its slot it is sliding along the smooth surface of the nose piece shift rod.



1/1 is the main shifter rod - the one which sticks out the nose piece. #2 is the dongle, inside the main case, with the fork piece #6 below it, which serves as a fulcrum for the dongle. The red dot shows the "finger" which does the 5/R shifting. #19 is the shift rod for 5/R, though alas it doesn't show the shallow slot ground into it which engages the finger.

Typically, to remove the transmission one would undo the grub screw holding the external shift coupler to to the transmission main shift rod. When reattaching the coupler, you'd just tighten the coupler screw into the hole on the shaft, and need no adjustment. If you took the coupler off the shaft going forward to the shift lever, then you might not get things back where they were, and if you get it wrong rotationally, you might end up with the "finger" not pressed fully into its slot.

This is all easier to understand if one has had the nose piece off at some point and seen how things work in there. I couldn't find a picture in my collection of that.

Didn't take John but a millisecond to guess what may have happened and how to fix it. I tend to get carried away with the "why."

[blur911]

Originally Posted by Walt Fricke

This is all easier to understand if one has had the nose piece off at some point and seen how things work in there. I couldn't find a picture in my collection of that.

Didn't take John but a millisecond to guess what may have happened and how to fix it. I tend to get carried away with the "why."

Hi Walt. I have the nose piece off one, waiting for a new staked nut. Anyhow, here are a couple of photos illustrating what you said. The shift rod is engaged in the reverse/5th notch.